Ed Murray/The Star-LedgerIn response to criticism from U.S. Rep. Peter King, Gov. Chris Christie, shown in this file photo, fired back at the New York Republican, saying he’s using the flap over New York police spying on New Jersey Muslims to make headlines in a re-election year.

TRENTON — In response to criticism from U.S. Rep. Peter King, Gov. Chris Christie fired back at the New York Republican, saying he’s using the flap over New York police spying on New Jersey Muslims to make headlines in a re-election year.

King told Fox Business Network Imus in the Morning that Christie “let his personal feelings get in the way of protecting us against terrorism” and resents Police Commissioner Ray Kelly for a past slight.

King said he sensed that when Christie was U.S. Attorney “he had a phone conversation with Ray Kelly on something and I don't think he thought that Ray Kelly showed him enough respect. And I think that's sort of still lingering out there.”

Christie said although he’s met Kelly a few times, he’s spoken to him on the phone, and quickly took aim at King, saying he “should really just be quiet” and stop politicizing the issue.

“Whenever he mentions my name he gets himself on TV,” he said at a press conference in Glen Gardner. “So that’s fine. I understand that, that’s a good thing for him because when you’re just one of 435 it’s sometimes tough to get your name in newspaper and on TV. So if Congressman King wants to continue to use me to get TV interviews and be in the newspapers, I guess that’s his choice.”

The Republican governor said NYPD should have learned from the “cardinal lesson” of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and shared their intention to enter New Jersey with the state’s law enforcement or terrorism task force.

“I hope that you guys write it again this way so that maybe Congressman King can have someone read it to him so he can understand exactly what I mean,” he said.

Earlier this month, Christie mocked Kelly as “all knowing, all seeing,” and today he said it doesn’t help if the department hordes information, “grabbing all the nuts, like a squirrel getting ready for the winter.”

“Just because you’re NYPD doesn’t exempt you from the cardinal lessons of Sept. 11,” he said. “If I ever sent New Jersey law enforcement over there and we didn’t share the information with NYPD can you imagine the screaming and yelling that would be going on in New York City about that?”

Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa is examining the NYPD's authority to be in the state, and whether the activity was legal. Christie has said his office – in conjunction Chiesa – is reviewing two executive orders signed in 2005 that granted the NYPD limited authority to operate in New Jersey.

Muslim leaders in New Jersey have called for a formal investigation into the NYPD in the wake of disclosures that in 2007 the NYPD conducted surveillance operations of Muslim businesses, mosques and student groups in Newark and New Brunswick.